Although parking is an issue for most companies, it is not always the major issue when making property choices, claims property expert Philip Morton from CBRE Bristol. Instead, he claims that Bristol is demonstrating that it is capable of supporting both city centre and business park options.
Philip Morton, Senior Director, CBRE, says; “The key factor for Bristol is specialisation, with high quality city centre property appealing particularly to Bristol’s professional sector, with specialist technology and niche businesses taking space.
“Projects such as the Enterprise Zone and high speed broadband are injecting new interest into the city centre areas and other business sectors such as media and fast-growth start-ups can be seen at both types of location. Plus funding for Bristol’s transport infrastructure and new rail stations should improve commuting into the centre.
”While parking is always a contentious issue, there are many other factors that influence a business in its location decisions. It is probably unrealistic to expect free parking for all, given the pressures on land use and also the aim to reducing private car journeys, however it is easy to overlook that even Bristol’s business parks, which are accessible to major residential areas of Emersons Green and are not ‘in the middle of nowhere’ as with some other U.K. regions.”
CBRE’s recently published Law Report looked at locations of leading lawyers and noted a trend of companies setting-up in central Bristol such as CMS Cameron McKenna who recently occupied office space at Bristol’s Harbourside.
Mr Morton added; “We are not seeing a picture of city centre space becoming a victim to ever-growing business parks, but a different appeal for each type of location.”
